Konigstein, Germany – You would think whoever created the world’s greatest soccer player would have been a little kinder when it came to the finishing touches. The first thing that strikes you when you see Ronaldinho up close isn’t the unruly, long, black mane or chiseled torso and legs that are expected to power mighty Brazil to a sixth World Cup title.
It’s the face. It’s kind of thrown together. His cheekbones appear to be bulging out of his copper- colored skin. His eyes are perpetually wide, as if he had just seen a large city leveled by an asteroid.
Brazilian cartoonists often depict him in newspapers looking like Bugs Bunny, a satire that makes even Ronaldinho laugh.
“I’m ugly but I have charm,” he’s fond of saying.
You can laugh at yourself when you make more money than any soccer player in the world not named David Beckham and have everything else Beckham wants: a Spanish league title, a Champions League title and a World Cup title. If Brazil wins its third World Cup in the last four tries, Ronaldinho, at 26, will have pulled off the trifecta all in one year.
And an unprecedented third consecutive FIFA world player of the year award probably wouldn’t be far behind.
So who needs to be handsome when your unmatched soccer skills can transcend the globe and move amorous beauties to maul you on the practice field – as a determined woman did in Switzerland last week?
His games with FC Barcelona are rarely televised in the U.S., but Americans unfamiliar with him should heed the call of experts who talk of him in terms usually reserved for dreams. The great Pele gave Ronaldinho his stamp as the greatest player alive and compared his footwork to the late George Best of Manchester United.
Carlos Alberto Parreira has coached Brazil for seven years and mentors Ronaldo, the three-time world player of the year, with whom he won the 1994 World Cup title. Asked between practices at their headquarters in Germany about which Ronaldinho skill he appreciates most, Parreira suddenly looked perplexed.
“His skills?” Parreira said at a jam-packed news conference of panting Brazilian journalists. “I can’t describe them. There are so many. The variety is so great. He can do everything with the ball. The most important thing is, in a real game, his application is always correct. So he might be ready to make a wonderful World Cup.”
Added Derek Rae, a former BBC soccer analyst and now a European soccer correspondent for ESPN: “Ronaldinho can do things with a ball I’ve never seen anyone do or attempt to do. He has the vision every other footballer in the world would die for. He sees things no one else can see.
“At times the things he does look impossible. And he makes them look so simple.”
Rae, a Scotsman who has followed international soccer for decades, rates the three best all-time players as Pele, Diego Maradona of Argentina and Johan Cruyff of the Netherlands, with Ronaldinho inching into that group.
“The way he traps and flicks the ball and looks one direction and flicks it another,” Rae said. “He can find his man 10 yards off and hit him perfectly. He has finesse and power. He has no weakness. He can actually move more quickly with his feet when he has the ball. I honestly think I’ve never seen a footballer like him.”
Don’t believe it? Look for yourself. Google his new Nike ad. Ronaldinho hardly says a word in it and every viewer is left speechless, too. A Nike rep hands him a new pair of shoes to test. Ronaldinho kicks up the ball and dribbles with his knees and feet around the goalmouth without it touching the ground.
When he reaches the front of the goal, he kicks the ball and hits the crossbar so hard it bounces back and hits him in the chest. He regains control without it hitting turf and kicks it again off the crossbar and back to his chest. He does the trick four times before you wonder if the guy’s for real.
(Psst! The clip isn’t. Playing catch against the crossbar is trick photography.)
However, the dribbling is no fake, and neither is Ronaldinho. He can touch a soccer ball four times in half a second. There’s a clip of that on the Net, too.
All reasons Nike gave him a 10-year deal that’s a good chunk of the $18 million he earns annually through 15 endorsements to go with the $11 million he makes with Barcelona.
He has homes in Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre, his boyhood home near the Uruguayan border. Ronaldinho doesn’t have the same favela-to-fandom story of many Brazilian stars. Born Ronaldo de Assis Moreira, he grew up in Porto Alegre’s favela, the teeming slums that mar the hillsides of many Brazilian cities. But his older brother, Roberto, was a star soccer player who signed with Gremio, the local pro team. So happy with Roberto, Gremio kept him from looking elsewhere by giving him and his family a villa with a pool.
It turned out to be a tragic gift. In 1988, when Ronaldinho was 8, his father, Joao, a solderer and security guard, had a heart attack, fell in the pool and drowned. A disheartened Roberto wound up hurting his knee and bouncing around leagues in Switzerland, Japan and Mexico before becoming his brother’s manager and adviser.
Ronaldinho needed one. He joined Gremio’s youth program at 7 and became one of Brazil’s rising stars, leading his team to the under-17 world title in Egypt in 1997. He changed his name to Ronaldinho to avoid confusion with Ronaldo.
Ronaldinho scored 15 goals in 14 games in 1998. A spectacular goal in the 1999 Copa America at 19 put him on the world stage. Paris Saint-Germain signed him and brought him to Europe in 2001, where he flourished onfield but not off. Coach Luis Fernandez, who is manic about preparation, squawked about his frequent clubbing.
Ronaldinho led Brazil to the 2002 World Cup title, after which Barcelona outbid Manchester United for his services. At the time, Barcelona was La Liga’s Titanic, a mighty program sinking fast from bad coaching, low morale and shoddy management. Within two years, Barcelona won the league. It won again this year.
Today, the mantle of world’s greatest player has forced Ro-naldinho to close ranks. The press knows almost nothing of his personal life, other than the fact he lives with two dogs named Bola and Negrao, and that he fathered a son last year with a Brazilian dancer. But they don’t even know if he has a girlfriend. His mother is a frequent visitor.
He reveals little in interviews. On Tuesday, wearing a blue bandanna to hold in his locks and blue Nike flip-flops, he responded to questions about his pressure with, “I’m aware of the responsibility. It’s marvelous to get to the World Cup in the form that I’m in at the moment.”
He understands the special marking he will receive, starting with Croatia on Tuesday in Berlin, saying, “I know that this means all the opponents will pay more attention to our attack and will be making it harder.”
The world will be watching his every move the next month. He hopes someone else will be watching, too.
When he scores a goal, he does a dance and looks skyward toward his father. When he does that, to his millions of fans, Ronaldinho never is more beautiful.
Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at 303-820-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
